The Missing Shadow
by elementneko
Summary: Her shadow's gone, she's broken, but he's okay with it. ShikaxIno, SasuxIno


The Missing Shadow

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><p>"There's no point," she would tell him as she stared out of the window, the darkness comforting her the way he couldn't. The stars sparkled with the unseen colors that she could recognize as <em>him<em>. It had been a while since he had passed, but she was never the same. It hurt to see her gaze at the diamonds with the message _'I miss you'_ that was only saved for them. He would never know that love that she held for the man that was no longer there.

She played it off so well in the daylight, but it was harder to hide in the dark where all the secrets would come pouring out in a steady stream of demons. No one expected her to love him so much, so much to abandon the one she pined for as a child when the lights went out. But she did. He was her secret heart, the one who knew her inside and out and accepted her for all of it. Sasuke had come to love all she was, but he couldn't reach the farthest corners of her mind like _he_ could. He was her other half.

Sometimes Sasuke was able to save her for a moment, the whispering convincing her mind that he was _him_, but then she would snap back to reality and his whispers couldn't help any longer. His heart ached, knowing it wasn't him that she loved all the time. She loved him in the light, but not in the dark. And she loved _him always_.

"Why can't you love _me_?" He once asked her with sadness in his voice, unable to be masked by simple curiosity. Her eyes never left the midnight sky as she replied, "You're not _him_." He had asked what was so special about him. Her eyes finally turned to him and the emptiness he saw scared him.

"He's my shadow."

Her eyes turned back to the sky and he knew what she meant. There was only one shadow for everyone. She was his, but he wasn't hers. He thought about ending their little romance, but he couldn't; in the light she did love him. In the light she was his and it was worth it. The hurt was worth it.

It was when it started raining that he realized that he was only fooling himself. She loved him, but not like she loved _him_. During the dreary, rainy days she would cry and cry and _cry_. It was when she couldn't see him in the stars and she couldn't see him in the sky and it was _too much_. It was then he came to an understanding of why she could love him in the day, but not at night.

The daylight reminded her of the happiness she had and what she knew he'd want for her. But in the dark where she could see the stars, that was when he was with her and she could feel the emptiness of his missing presence. The stars whispered his words, used his voice and she knew that he would be her only. The blue sky in the light only showed her his face, his smile and his kind eyes. His smile was enough, but his voice was just _unbearable_.

He had walked in to check on her, as he couldn't spend much time with her while she was so broken, and she was curled on the floor, crying her eyes out.

"What's the point?" Her voice cracked with the heartbreak that tore at his own heart. He didn't know what to say to that, he didn't know what the answer was. Bending down next to her, he hesitantly laid a hand on her shoulder. "You're my point." Her tear streaked face looked at him and her blue eyes were glossed over but a little confused. "I'm broken, Sasuke."

"You're perfect," he whispered in her ear. Her body wracked with sobs.

"I'm not perfect." _Without him_. He heard the untold part.

Sasuke just held her, unable to do anything else, afraid to say something wrong. He wasn't the shadow-user and he never would be. He accepted it. It was fact. And he would never stop loving her so he had no choice in the matter. _It just was_.

The rain stopped and things were back to normal, only Ino was never normal. She smiled but it wasn't as free as it had been, there was something locked behind her facade of happiness and it scared him. It was in the light but the darkness seemed to be stuck to her, glued to her mind and sinking into every cell.

"I can't breathe, Sasuke," she whispered to him, hand clutching at her chest as if there was a lock there.

"I'm sorry," he told her, trying to comfort her with his little touches. She was frantic and he had never been so afraid. He didn't know what was going on in her mind but he knew it was hard for her to breathe. But he couldn't help. The body starts to shut down without a heart to keep alive, and she had given her heart completely to someone else. Someone who wasn't there to give his. And of course Sasuke's wouldn't do.

In the daylight she was perfect, she was whole, but at night her shadow was miles and miles away, sparkling in the sky, reminding her that he wasn't with her. It wasn't enough anymore, just to live in the light and to slowly die in the dark. Sasuke wasn't enough anymore. He couldn't keep the waters of loneliness from flowing out and drowning her and now it was just _too much to bear_.

He wasn't surprised when she wouldn't wake up from that restless sleep, but it didn't help the pain. She couldn't live without him, but now how could he live without her? "You've always lived without her, Sasuke," his other blonde friend would say with sorrowful eyes, and he realized that he was was right. She was never his.


End file.
